Economist Looks to "The Outer Limits" and "Watchmen" to Solve Financial Crisis

Nobel Prize-winning economist and liberal NY Times columnist Paul Krugman recently appeared on CNN where he spoke about ways to get the US out of its economic troubles.

He said: "If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. And then if we discovered, 'whoops, we made a mistake,' we'd [still] be better. There was a 'Twilight Zone' episode like this, in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time we need it to get some fiscal stimulus."

In other words, we need another massive stimulus to create jobs and get people working again.

Krugman is likely referring to "The Outer Limits" episode, "The Architects of Fear" (watch episode here), about a secret group of scientists who convince the world that an alien invasion is coming in order to force countries to make peace with each other.

This concept is also similar to the plot of "Watchmen," in which Ozymandias fakes an attack by Dr. Manhattan to prevent a nuclear war betwen the US and Russia.

He said: "If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. And then if we discovered, 'whoops, we made a mistake,' we'd [still] be better. There was a 'Twilight Zone' episode like this, in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time we need it to get some fiscal stimulus."

Right. Let's forget about curbing outlandish spending, creating real, solid jobs and keeping people employed, all the while helping other people get employed and also paying down on debts that have gotten way out of hand ....

Honestly I doubt that there was any way to make the Watchmen movie more entertaining and exciting for the general population. There was just too much there, too much information coming at them at too many different levels. And any movie although a very low resolution snapshot of the graphic novel would in all probability invoke the same reaction out of the general public.

Probably would have been better off to have cut the film down to where it was just about a guy that accidentally gets disintegrated...but then manages to come back from the dead albeit for some reason he is now completely blue and packing a 15 inch penis...and then just concentrated on the simple hilarity of that situation.

He thinks looking at fiction movies that it might help solve financial crisis, oh come on.

Looks like someone has lost all hope and believes the countries can't fix the crisis.

I believe we can solve the crisis and besides I live in the UK and the cuts being done with money in this country isn't right because it causing gang crime and looters smashing shops and stealing tv, XBOX, games, shoes, clothes etc.

I don't know. I think looking at recent history if we did think that there was a distinct chance of an impending alien invasion, all it would do is illicit massive surges in our military spending. Which would do very little as far as strengthening the economy or propping up our sagging infrastructure.

Some companies that heavily rely on defense contracts, especially those that have become proficient in the sub-contracting con game would would enjoy increased profit margins and prosperity, but overall it would have minimum effect on the economic outlook of the average American.

Nope at this point the best thing and best way that the United States could immediately fix this economic quagmire that we are in, would be to start conquering weaker nations and forcing the entirety of their population into slave labor work camps. Not only various industrial work camps, but also establishing huge American infrastructure construction and repair programs.

Without having to pay or give this slave labor any benefits or healthcare it wouldn't be long before America was back on top on a lot of lists.

And at the very least we would probably end up with a quality interstate highway system that was comparable in quality to the German Autobahn.

Not to mention that it would give plenty of victims for the unabated hilarity of having a stranger's fist shoved up their rectums...

...Heck they could even make a reality show out of Americans fisting these foreign slaves, which would probably be the opposite of boring.

It is like that joke. A man is worried about all the starvation that goes on in the world, all the needless people that die every year because they just don't have enough food to eat. So he embarks on an epic journey to find some sort of solution. And eventually he manages to climb one of the highest mountains in the Himalayas so that he can seek the counsel of one of the most intelligent and wisest wise men in the entire world. And so he asks this fountain of knowledge what would be the cheapest and easiest way to end the deadly problem of world hunger.

google project bluebeam its a real goverment idea to fake a ufo invasion to take control of goverment and call marshal law and to rob us of our tax money so they can wepaonise space to use on us. this guy probably knows about this and is planting the idea on the sheeple in the main stream media.

@John - I hear ya (and agreed with your other post on original scripts go no-where in Hollyweird), but I'm sitting 50/50 on your comments here. WWII did pull the world out of The Great Depression.

Coinky-dink? I doubt it.

But yes, in war build-ups, (or re-builds such as Iraq) too few win. And if there wasn't a country to build after WWII (ie: the US with it's influx of qualified, trades, immigrants)... it would not have lasted. Bush and Cheney are riding high via Halliburton and their Iraq contracts. Anyone have a couple of spare bullets for those 2 f*ckers?

I sort of understand where the guy is coming from,the politicians do seem to be dragging their collective feet.
Watchmen doth indeed rock but the book was better.
And yup,Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were great,first few series of X-files too.

Or, perhaps Mr. Krugman, if you could think outside the box for a minute, and I know it sounds nuts, but just bear with me here... maybe we could put people back to work by rebuilding the crumbling national infrastructure, I know it's not as plausable as say... an alien invasion... but it has worked before and might be worth trying again.

Seriously, you know we're in trouble when the best idea that a butt plug liberal like Krugman can come up with is faking an alien invasion. How in the hell did an *sshole like this get the nobel prize, oh wait, I know, because liberal idealists love giving each other unearned acolades, it goes towards feeding that whole elitest/martyr complex they all seem to have.

Ozymandias and his scientists created a big f*cking squid. And it was AWESOME. Oh, but no, people this days are WAY too inteligent (Twifag, Jersey Shore and Justin Beiver are fine examples of this) to believe that so they f*cked up Doc Manhattan in the movie. Way to go, Snake.

I am have been saying this for years. 2012 there will be a staged landing in Area 51,"MJ12" the President SELECT will be Jed Bush, and this will be the beginning of the NWO. Don't believe it. We will defeat the Alien invaders and the person who does it will become the new dictator, warning of further threats. AND do be STUPID why do you think they have been PUMPING alien invasion everywhere TV, Movies, Games, and all of a sudden NASA shuts down?! WAKE UP!

^Right, so that giant "ufo" "alien" spike of interest in the 30's to the mid 50's in cinema and media had something to do with rebuilding the economy?

f*cking liberals and your conspiracy theories. This is all bullsh*t.

The Problem here is that sure, a national threat may increase the amount of jobs and labor put forward by the general population in the US. In no way shape or form would that increase in jobs help the economy. If anything it would do exactly the opposite. Spending in plenty of areas would drop slightly sure, it would increase exponentially in key areas though. It being a national crisis. Military spending is already through the roof. It's only going to get worse if something like this were to happen. In which the poor and middle class would be taxed more and the haves would gain all that money. Ridiculous spending would not be halted by this sort of situation. In the end, successful in eliminating the threat or not. It would make the rich richer and the poor poorer.. Mostly due to military spending and product inflation. You can't tell me that if the only thing protecting your brain from alien thought control for example was TinFoil, that the cost in tinfoil wouldn't increase 10 fold in a matter of days. It's all relative.

Now, on a global scale its also ineffective. Watchmen worked to bring the world together. To solve differences globally in order to eliminated a "global" threat. This didn't help with the US' economy surely.

Even with a global threat of alien invasion it's not like every countries first instinct would be to help other countries out of a recession. It would be a global crisis with minimal global effort. Democracies a like take care of their own before even considering foreign efforts.

So in the end this is all liberal bullsh*t. I like the idea of forced slave labor. So long as I get in on some profit sharing I have no issue with this. Unless this continent even, as a whole is willing to go to seriously drastic measures. I seriously f*cking doubt that any kind of crisis would do anything other than make things worse.

Lol all you conservative calling this guy a joke obviously never saw your conservative god ronald reagan echo the same bullsh*t in front of congress once and at a UN summit. He used the alien invasion analogy to try and unite the world as human beings with a common threat not individuals with silly differences.

I love how every internet troll on the planet thinks they know more about economics than someone who's earned a nobel prize on the subject. Everyone who occasionally reads the dogsh*t served up at Fox news, or MSNBC, or CNN Money or anyone of the McNews sites- regardless of the conservative or liberal leanings- CLEARLY has a better grasp of economic principles. :/

"Or Washington could just stop spending so much f*cking money that they don't have."

This is one sentence I always hear that I never understand. Exactly where are we supposed to cut spending? As far as I can tell the only meaningful way to cut spending is to cut entitlements SIGNIFICANTLY, as currently the US spends $6 on the elderly for every $1 spent on its youth.

Politically of course this is a suicidal stance to take, as the elderly are very politically involved (even if they are frequently ignorant). So instead of facing ugly reality we look to places where we can trim the fat, like our national parks, the EPA, education, food stamps, whatever. Which is fine if you're a recluse who grows his own food and just wants to be left alone in his shack in the woods. But I would rather have the government just take some of my paycheck than get sideways nickle-and-dimed through higher tolls, higher park fees, higher vehicle registration fees, more frequent traffic tickets, etc etc just because states can't make ends meet due to the unreasonable ideological stances of their constituencies.

Also, and now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the government is the US's largest employer, and it takes only the most basic of arithmetic skills to realize that cutting spending essentially means cutting jobs. Jobs like firefighters, police officers, teachers, social workers, etc. etc etc. And another uncomfortable reality; factory jobs are overseas, and they ain't coming back. IT is moving overseas too. So where the hell are these jobs supposed to come from if not the government?